What did you do to prepare today?

bonniebede

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

Chopped the last of my wood this evening. Havent paid for logs all winter, all they cost me was doing a bit of shooting for a mates da (which i would have done anyway for the crack) and cuttin and choppin them all which i enjoyed too! Have probably a months worth left stacked in the garage so time to start lookin for next years supply!

Fair play, that man!

bonniebede

evilmonkee wrote: »

Lidl from today €2 first earlies seed potatoes. Ikea bags, bin bags, coal bags etc. make great potato planters!

Also Aldi have fruit shrubs / hanging baskets and seeds on offer now too. All are from NI / UK so should be fine with our climate.

Thanks for this.

Is it true bin bags have some sort of chemical added for hygiene purposes... so not so good as planters?

Also was thinking compost bag would work, after all it was designed to be safe for compost?

baords dyslexic

bonniebede wrote: »

Thanks for this.

Is it true bin bags have some sort of chemical added for hygiene purposes... so not so good as planters?

Also was thinking compost bag would work, after all it was designed to be safe for compost?

Should be OK as the same chemicals are afaik used in all "cheap" plastics. The smell you get off black bin bags is the plasticiser and again afaik the quality of the orignal material and the quality of the plasticiser have a bearing on the end use and longevity of the product for example food grade plastics don't have that freshly unrolled bin bag smell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticizer

bonniebede

Today i made a bob masterlist, and sorted my bag to see what was needed.

Got three more gardening books, feel i have enough now to carry me forward on that project.

ShadowFox

Today I bought more rock salt (as woodies still have it cheap) Storage boxes as I had stuff everywhere in the house and spent the rest of the day sorting out the storage boxes

baords dyslexic

grapeape wrote: »

Today I bought more rock salt (as woodies still have it cheap) Storage boxes as I had stuff everywhere in the house and spent the rest of the day sorting out the storage boxes

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh storage boxes, I probably have far toooooooo many already but keep buying more. May I recommend the Curver Unbrakeable plastic boxes for SHTF prep storage? - They often have them in Woodies.

Many of the boxes I use are quite thin clear plastic (Woodies Clippy Boxes), great for indoors but not so good once you start moving them around, if they slide around in a car boot or get dropped with anything in them they shatter, as do most of the cheaper ranges of plastic storage boxes.

The Curver Unbrakeable Boxes on the other hand are a slightly softer more flexable plastic that doesn't shatter and takes a lot of punishment, but you pay for it in the price.

bonniebede

Today...planted some more salad crops. Updated my gardening diary, this is a steep learning curve.

Skin patch test with aloe vera plant...no reaction so far.

Discovered something (aphids?) on some of my herbs...eeeew. I never ordered them. Thought about tackling them with the lidl multitool. Decided that was an over-reaction. Put them all outside in the garden. Hope the slugs get them. I can eat slugs.:rolleyes:

Finally admitted to having plants in the back room, no bother:pac:. Worried however that I have broken the golden rule of not letting unnecessary persons know about your prepping location. However can't see myself letting himself starve while I munch on salad in the back room, even with added aphid protein. And there's always the lidl multitool...:eek:

What did I prepare today? Mostly breakfast, lunch , and shortly dinner. Ah...starvation held at bay for another 24 hrs.

bonniebede

Sprouting mung beans.

A good crop to have nearly instant vegetables from seeds that will keep 5 years. Or could be grown on for a further harvest.

baords dyslexic

Planted Broad Beans (should have done this back in November as well :rolleyes:) variety Aquadulce (sometimes called Aquadulce Claudia) they are a bomb proof hardy varietly and you can get a crop at least a fortnight earlier with an Autumn sown crop.

kildare.17hmr

Invested in a new magnesium fire steel, lit the house fire with it this eve to try it out, tis class

Tabnabs

Got a bushkey

bonniebede

It has always seemed to me that stocking up on toilet paper was weird...it is not going to go off, so should be available for a while post disaster, but ultimately it is not going to be available at all, so why use valuable food/seed storage space for it? you are going to have to switch to an alternative eventually, so why not just accept it as an immediate change. That being said, I think a stack of small clothes/faceclothes would be a good idea.

http://www.enviromom.com/2009/03/goodbye-toilet-paper-hello-reusable-wipes.html

Doc Ruby

bonniebede wrote: »

http://www.enviromom.com/2009/03/goodbye-toilet-paper-hello-reusable-wipes.html

Just use water from a jug or bucket, works a lot better and is a lot cleaner, it's what most of asia uses.

bonniebede

Doc Ruby wrote: »

Just use water from a jug or bucket, works a lot better and is a lot cleaner, it's what most of asia uses.

Hmmm, yes but...most of asia also wear loose fitting clothing and know how to squat, not a great skill of mine.:o

And after you use the water, then what?

And other girly issues i refuse to discuss even here.:o

Doc Ruby

bonniebede wrote: »

And after you use the water, then what?

Your ass is perfectly clean! The water is usually absorbed or goes down wherever you are doing the business. Really, its completely effective, I've lived in some very poor parts of the world without western comforts, deliberately doing so in order to be accepted by the locals. I've yet to win a staring competition with water buffalo while washing my clothes in the river!

bonniebede wrote: »

And other girly issues i refuse to discuss even here.:o

Sadly, I have no clue, although reuseable cloths would seem to be the way to go. That would be some valuable info for rebuilding a community in the event of a serious emergency!

baords dyslexic

bonniebede wrote: »

It has always seemed to me that stocking up on toilet paper was weird...it is not going to go off, so should be available for a while post disaster, but ultimately it is not going to be available at all, so why use valuable food/seed storage space for it? you are going to have to switch to an alternative eventually, so why not just accept it as an immediate change. That being said, I think a stack of small clothes/faceclothes would be a good idea.

http://www.enviromom.com/2009/03/goodbye-toilet-paper-hello-reusable-wipes.html

Whats wrong with "bumf"

The derivation if you didn't know is from waste paper used us toilet paper

Any reusable paper used to be bum fodder > bumf

CamperMan

I got out of bed ... that's a start considering it's feckin freezing cold... inside and out..

bonniebede

nearly drowned at aquafit. I WILL get fit enough to bug out on foot with my knapsack on my back.

Grizzly 45

Caved in and bought one of the Lidl Gennys!TBH not a bad little machine,if you dont try powering up an entire city block with it.Engine looks like a B&S or Honda copy.
It will get plenty of exercise around here in the estate with work out in the fields and wherever.Should be enough to keep basics functioning as long as there is gasoline,and I'm looking then if it can be converted to run on LPG or homebrew alcohol.

Doc Ruby

bonniebede wrote: »

nearly drowned at aquafit. I WILL get fit enough to bug out on foot with my knapsack on my back.

Thats the style, keep it up!

bonniebede

Raided the euro shop (in the sense of bought items at:rolleyes:)

Seed potatoes, first and second earlies, and main crop. Plan to grow these on in sacks, then store them (hessian bags or clamp?) and see can i save them for seed for next year. all E1.50, much cheaper than garden centre.

Also garlic and onion sets. Onions are a must have for campfire cooking, the garlic in case of all out vampire attack.

Also got two .75 litre aluminium water bottles, look and act just like sigg bottles but at 2 yoyos instead of 20! Might use one for alcohol stove fuel.

Also got wire and snips, planning to make penny stove for alcohol and wood over the next few weeks, also maybe little rocket stove.

the drifter

Tabnabs wrote: »

Got a bushkey

how or where did you buy one? cant seem to see a buy it now option on the site...

but then again tis early and ive not finished my coffee

Tabnabs

the drifter wrote: »

how or where did you buy one? cant seem to see a buy it now option on the site...

but then again tis early and ive not finished my coffee

I contacted him through one of the forums we both frequent, but there is also an email address info@dorsetwoodlandblades.co.uk

Khannie

Bought yeast. At least if it all goes belly up I'll be able to get drunk.

bonniebede

Food storage

Today I bought a lot of food for my storage having finally honed my planning to bare essentials.
I have decided to stock the following items as one months food supply for one person (about 2200kcals daily); however it could be stretched to feed 2 people with the addition of foraged or grown food, the multivitamin is bought with 2 people in mind. The plan is to have enough basics to keep us alive, and then to focus on garden produce, foraging hunting and fishing skills, and having a seed bank so that I can ramp up food production if necessary.


ItemQuantity/notesMultivitamins w/ iron(60)1 dailyx30 days (2 people)Porridge oats200grms / 720 kcals x 30 days =6kg Flour (self raising/plain)200grms / 650 kcals x 30 days =6kg Rice200grms / 700 kcals x 30 days =6kg
Vegetable oil1 lt
Sugar1 kg Salt



9 kg in stock

bonniebede

AS per previous post I now have basics to cover 2 months, and part of 3. I plan to have enough to cover 1 yr.

In addition I added 12 cans each of baked beans, peas, carrots, to cover the time lag between starting to grow and garden produce being ready.

Non perishables:

Added 200 5 hr tea lights and 50 8 hr candles to the stockpile, think I now have enough candles for storage. Certainly enough to have a few hours of light every day for a year. If it goes on that long I'll either be making my own or learning to live in the dark:(

Also added several bars of soap.

kildare.17hmr

Very impressive how your gettin into this bonniebede, you will do well

Have you told the hubby about your plans yet? Does he know what your at?

bonniebede

I did a prepping sweep or Musgraves today to see what they might have that was useful.

Got a sack or 20 kg rice for 16 euros, this is cheaper than tescos. Might be problematic having it all in one bag, and the best by date is a bit hard to determine, but it will do for now.

Also checked out the other items on my food list - flour, salt, sugar, veg oil, porridge. All of the above were cheaper in Tesco, and in more convenient sizes for me to manage, this might not be the case if you are prepping for 12 not two.

The only exception was flour. If you were prepared to handle it in 15 kg sacks, it would be marginally cheaper than Tesco, as in a couple of cents per kilo, but the inconvenience does not make it worth it imo.

Other items:
Candles - tealights, ordinary, and big pillar church candles, all cheaper than anywhere else I've seen them, some value to be had, but not huge savings. However here the ability to buy in bulk was useful, have tucked away a handy box of 50 candles and 200 tealights.(about 18 euros worth)

Also acquired 3 brush handles - 4 ft long and quite thick, solid but not too heavy, nicely finished surface. Could have multiple uses, 1 will go in my car with my get home bag, 2 will go with my bob. Will probably add paracord grips, and keep some cheap kitchen type knives handy for lashing on to make a spear or souped up quarter staff for hunting (food). Yes I know about the 'don't use your knife as a spear' issue, but these would be knives I would not carry with me otherwise, not my real knife, or its back up. (cost 2 euro's each)

Best of all, I found real kilner preserving jars, @ about 2.30 each. These are the proper preserving type, with metal rings and lids for canning. I am thrilled with these as I couldn't find anywhere that sold them in Ireland before. With reusable lids (available from lehmanns in the states) these are a must have food prep and storage item. I need to check that the reusable lids come in sizes that fit before i buy too many.
Musgraves said they always carry them, though I have never seen them before, They are also happy to order them on request. THey also have the half litre size. Woohoo!:)

bonniebede

Cellar. No, the garage. No, the attic. No, the pantry. Oops, having none of the previous, where the heck is this stuff going to go?:eek:

CamperMan

bonniebede wrote: »

Cellar. No, the garage. No, the attic. No, the pantry. Oops, having none of the previous, where the heck is this stuff going to go?:eek:

under the floorboards???